RECENT FROM Attitudes
Study: Radicalized Muslims Have Little Actual Knowledge Of Islam...
Extremists and Islamophobes alike have attempted to paint violent factions within Islam as the true expression of the faith. But a new study gives credence to what countless Muslim leaders, activists and scholars have argued: that groups like the self-proclaimed Islamic State are Muslim in name alone. A group of German scholars at the Universities of Bielefeld and Osnabrück analyzed 5,757 WhatsApp messages found on a phone seized by police following a terrorist attack in the spring of 2016. The messages were exchanged among 12 young men involved in the attack. The attack itself was not identified in the report. Deutsche Welle noted that the timeframe suggested it may...
RECENT FROM Sports
Boxing Champ Launches Sports Hijab...
A boxing champion from the East End has created a sports hijab to help more Muslim women get into combat sports. Ruqsana Begum (below) – who is the current British female Atomweight Muay Thai boxing champion – runs personal training sessions and women-only sessions in the sport at the Osmani Centre in Whitechapel. She said: “I came up with the idea during the Olympics. I was interested in the story of an American athlete who was told she couldn’t compete wearing her hijab due to health and safety reasons, so her father created one that was approved for her to fight in. “I thought if they can create one...
RECENT FROM Service
Is Islamic Law an Answer for Humanitarians?...
DUBAI, 24 April 2014 (IRIN) – Humanitarian action today is largely taking place in Muslim-majority countries where some combatants turn to Islamic law, among other sources, to guide their military behaviour. As a result, in the last decade, aid and advocacy agencies have increasingly tried to understand Islamic law in order to use its humanitarian provisions as tools of negotiation with armed groups in the Muslim world. This is particularly helpful in engaging Islamist armed groups, some of whom reject international humanitarian law (IHL). Some aid agencies try to situate their arguments for access or protection of civilians within a religious context, sometimes using scholars, mullahs or other religious...
Muslim, Arab-American Youths Emerge as Social Activists
July 22, 2011 Lolla Mohammed Nur When you think of Arab or Muslim political activists, you likely imagine flag-waving, fist-pumping protesters demanding rapid political reform. However, in the United States, Muslim political activism seems to take on a different meaning. Glancing at Wiaam Yasin, you wouldn’t immediately assume she’s an activist with a passion for immigration reform. A petite 20-year-old who wears the Muslim headscarf, the Sudanese American native of Reston, Virginia, speaks Spanish, is passionate about immigration reform and hopes to volunteer abroad. Yasin is just one of many Muslim and Arab-American youths who are seeking social change in their local communities by focusing their efforts on minority rights, immigration reform and racial equality. Her interest in...
Islamic Healers Treat Wounds in Russia’s Chechnya
By Thomas Grove GROZNY, Russia | Thu Jul 21, 2011 12:27pm EDT (Reuters) – Lying on a couch with her eyes closed, 26-year-old Milena sips water blessed by an Islamic healer who sits nearby reciting verses from the Koran to cure her depression. Outside, a long line of patients wait at Chechnya’s state-run Islamic Medical Center, hoping its staff can heal deep psychological wounds left by years of war in the volatile region in Russia’s North Caucasus. Nearly fifteen years after her brother was killed in the first separatist war, and more than a decade after the second conflict drove her family from their home, Milena is one of thousands of Chechens who have...
Pope to Meet Jews, Muslims on German visit
VATICAN CITY | Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:28am EDT (Reuters) – Pope Benedict will meet Jews and Muslims on his visit to his German homeland in September, the Vatican said on Wednesday. The visit, which will take him to Berlin, Erfurt, Etzelsbach, Lahr and Freiburg im Breisgau, will be Benedict’s third trip home since becoming pope in 2005. A Vatican program for the September 22-25 trip showed the pope will meet members of the Jewish community on the first day and Muslims on the second day. While meetings with the Jewish community are common on papal trips, when a pope meets the community in Germany the event takes on greater significance because of the...
US Muslim Female Weightlifter Wins Battle to Wear Hijab
Kulsoom Abdullah, left, trains at Crossfit gym in Atlanta, Ga. Abdullah’s Ph.D. from Georgia Tech and black belt in taekwondo are proof she doesn’t back away from challenges. Abdullah on Friday will become the first woman to compete in the national weightlifting championships while wearing clothing that covers her legs, arms and head, in keeping with her Muslim faith. (AP Photo/Joey Ivansco)The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has approved new guidelines to give female weightlifters the option of covering their arms and legs. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix75KgmEpvw[/youtube] The decision came after Muslim female weightlifter, Kulsoom Abdullah, established a historic victory to convince the International Weightlifting Federation to change it’s dress code. Thirty-five-year-old Abdullah of Atlanta, who holds a PhD in computer engineering,...
Terrorism: Perception vs. Reality
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JsRqF4kguY[/youtube] Professor Kurzman studies the Middle East closely and has expertise on terrorism and radical Islam. In this conversation, he discusses Al Qaeda after the death of Osama Bin Laden and the effectiveness of radical groups in recruiting young Muslims. Kurzman is a professor of sociology at UNC-Chapel Hill....
Muslims Rush to Restore Torched Egypt Church
By Sami Aboudi CAIRO | Wed May 25, 2011 3:36pm EDT (Reuters) – Mohammed Fathi worked his brush gently over an icon of Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, removing soot from its surface inside a church gutted in an attack by Islamist militants this month. “It takes a lot of careful work to do that,” Fathi said. “We have to do a lot of tests with chemicals to try to restore the icon to its original condition.” The 26-year-old is one of a vast group of mostly Muslim craftsmen tasked with restoring St Mary’s Church in the Cairo suburb of Imbaba after militants set it on fire on May 7. Egypt’s military...
Egyptian Islamist Calls for Tolerance of Coptic Christians
May 11, 2011 Elizabeth Arrott | Cairo Violence between Egypt’s Coptic Christians and conservative Muslims has led to calls for tolerance from some unlikely sources. The allegiance of the men gathered outside a mosque in central Assyut is clear. But the man addressing the rally implores them to embrace those of other religions. Aboud el-Zomour warns against interfaith violence that just days before in Cairo left 12 people dead. An ex-army officer, former leader of Islamic Jihad, and prisoner for nearly 30 years for his role in killing the perceived infidel President Anwar Sadat, al-Zomour now presents himself as a messenger of peace. He tells the crowd his group has “turned the page of violence, forever and with...
Indonesian Muslims Express No Sympathy on Death of Osama bin Laden
May 02, 2011 Brian Padden | Jakarta In Indonesia, a country with the largest Muslim population in the world, many people voiced support for the U.S. operation that killed Osama bin Laden Although Indonesia is home to a variety of militant Islamic organizations that have carried out attacks against Western targets, the country has a history of religious diversity and moderation. So it is not surprising that Darma Widjaya, like many of the Muslims who came to midday prayers at the Sunda Kelapa mosque in Jakarta Monday expressed no sympathy upon hearing of the death of Osama bin Laden. He says it is quite good for the entire world, because bin Laden is a terrorist. Another mosque visitor...
US Muslims Relieved at Death of bin Laden
May 02, 2011 Jerome Socolovsky | Washington, D.C. In the past decade, many American Muslims have said Osama bin Laden changed their lives in America for the worse. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that he ordered killed nearly 3,000 people and made all Muslims a target of suspicion, they said. So the killing of bin Laden by U.S. military commandos storming a heavily fortified compound in Pakistan was widely welcomed. “Today we greet the news of the death of Osama bin Laden with immense relief,” said Tarin. Haris Tarin, the head of the Muslim Public Affairs Council Washington office, says he was awake all night after the killing, communicating with Muslims, especially the younger generation. “And I...
US Mosque Hosts Passover Seder
April 25, 2011 Dora Mekouar | Sterling, Virginia Andrea Barron is performing an annual ritual: lighting two candles for a Passover Seder, the ceremonial retelling of the ancient Israelites’ exodus from slavery in Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. The traditional elements are all in place – including the Seder plate which holds unleavened bread, green vegetables, bitter herbs and a shank bone. However, what is unusual about the evening’s Seder is that it is taking place in the basement of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS), a mosque outside of Washington, D.C. Rizwan Jaka, board member and chair of the interfaith committee at ADAMS, sees it as a natural fit. “There’s commonality. We all believe in the freedom that’s...
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